The seven passengers who were abducted along Ibokun-Osogbo road have been set free.
This is coming barely 48 hours after Osun State police commissioner, CP Olawale Olokojo with support from other security outfits relocated to kidnappers forest in Ajebandele of Obokun local government area of the State to rescue abducted passengers.
The abductees who regained their freedom on Friday night according to the state commissioner, would soon be reunited with their respective family members.
The police boss who spoke through the command public relations officer, Mrs Yemisi Opalola Olawoyin stated that, “the victims were released due to the pressure mounted on the abductors by the Police and other security agencies and the victims will soon be reunited with their families.”
The Commissioner of Police however appealed to the good citizens of the State to collaborate with Police to get rid of all criminal elements from the State.
He further assured the members of the public/commuters of their safety as security measures have been put in place to forestall future occurrence.
It will be recalled that the state police commissioner relocated to the forest where kidnappers pitch their tents after killing a passenger and abducted some travellers along Osogbo-Ibokun road last Tuesday evening.
The commissioner while speaking on the RAVE broadcasting radio station in Osogbo on Thursday, said, ” I was personally there and I am impressed with the way the members of the community came out to support us, we have so many police officers in the bush now. We have vigilantes, hunters and Amotekun and we are all there in the bus not minding the long distances.
“There are rough turning points there but, we are resolute as, this is going to be the last of such incidents we will witness there because, we know that these hoodlums are likely the ones terrorising the highways.
“These are people who are very used to movement in the forest either at night or day time, because it is surprising that, for the two days since we have been on their trail,what we could only see is their traces and we could found phones, slippers of their victims of which gave us the assurances that they followed the lines we were tracing. And now, we have divided ourselves to block the visible area they could use as an escape route”.
On the Identities of the evil perpetrators, the commissioner of police said, “We do not have their true identities but some people we interviewed said,they speak languages that could not be traceable to neither Hausa, Igbo nor Yoruba but unknown language and we are suspecting fufude language but we don’t know until they are arrested. It is after the arrest that,we will be able to ascertain who the identities of the perpetrators of the act are.”
“This area has been otherwise known to be peaceful, no one could ever think they could retire to this area. So right now,we have made adequate arrangement both on the highway and within the interland to police properly the state of Osun.”
The police boss however stated that, “the use of technology like helicopter and drones would
assist us in policing greatly because,the area view of the forest needed to be spotted with the use of the mentioned technology so that, we can ascertain the particular spot where the hoodlums actually operate other than beating about the bush. Using technology will be highly supportive.”
While answering question on the numbers of the kidnapped victims, he asked:, “Who was around that place at the period when the incident occurred? We cannot ascertain whether they were three or four victims. We are still not sure right now.”
He however said that,”Those rescued are very stable now, they are just two women, the DPO of that division Obokun division was with them yesterday and he told me, they are responding well to the treatment because it was the gun pellet wounds the victims sustained but they used AK-47 rifle on the reported dead driver.”
“Osun state government have been highly supportive. Like I used to say, the government is a supporter of peace and the welfare of people is paramount in their government. Also, Bringing in the traditional ruler will go along way in assisting us in policing, information from them will assist us in our operations because intelligence-led policing is what is in vogue now.
“If we have credible intelligence, it would greatly help because it appears some members of the community are suspicious of the law enforcement agency in terms of giving out information and prefer to confide more in traditional rulers,” he concluded.
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